Saturday, February 26, 2011

It's impossible to watch Black Swan and not think of other films. This is not to say that Black Swan is bad or completely derivative---I loved it. But it explores a very specific set of themes that automatically link it to other movies, more specifically: mommy issues, dreams, paranoid schizophrenia, dance, toxic friendships, the supernatural, merging identities, sexual repression and/or naïveté, murder, lesbianism, perfectionism, self-injury, and betrayal. All of the following films contain at least half of these themes, if not more. If you loved Black Swan rent them now!

Black Swan, Rosemary's Baby, The Piano Teacher (not for the faint of heart), Showgirls (basically porn), Persona, The Red Shoes, Mulholland Drive, All About Eve, 3 Women, Suspiria, Images, Carrie, Sisters, and Repulsion. I also wanted to include Single White Female but Bridget Fonda's hairstyle is so god-awful and I didn't want to pollute this blog with it's ugliness!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Don't you just love it when two of your favorite things come together in a magical, unexpected way? Sort of like when the Jetsons met the Flintstones or that time that Isabelle Huppert was on Law & Order SVU. Such is the case with Stevie Nicks and LaBelle et La Bête; her song "Beauty and the Beast" was inspired by the film. It's the closing track on The Wild Heart, she also channeled Belle on the album cover!

I just found out that every episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre is now on Hulu, including the epic Beauty and the Beast episode directed by Roger Vadim! Susan Sarandon plays Belle, Klaus Kinski is the Beast, and Anjelica Huston was unfairly cast as one of Belle's annoying sisters. God I wish this show still existed, maybe Justin Beiber could play Peter Pan? Or Shiloh Jolie-Pitt as Little Red Riding Hood?

I love this photo of Kate Moss from the LaBelle et La Bête-inspired Craig McDean editorial in Paris Vogue a few years back. You can look at the whole thing here but it's pretty lackluster overall. American Vogue's take on the film was also questionable.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hands down, the most spectacularly beautiful two minutes in the history of cinema. If you aren't moved by this you're probably a sociopath. Or maybe just a Saw fan. Watch La Belle et La Bête on Netflix or Youtube.